6
$\begingroup$

I was thinking of a situation in which a life form evolves a biological screen somewhere on its body that can play videos. The life form would play videos on its biological video screen in order to share ideas and memories with other members of its species. The videos that the life form could play could be simulations of what has happened or could happen in the real world or they could be simulations of entirely fictional worlds.

How would a biological video screen work? What kind of selective pressure could cause a species to evolve to have a biological video screen?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
0

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
9
$\begingroup$

A good starting point would be the chromatophores of the cuttlefish which have an amazing range of colors and textures, and can vary at Hz rates. One would assume that sexual displays would form the basis for more abstract forms of communications.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
8
$\begingroup$

Yes,it could happen. But that means the animal would also need very good eyesight to pick up these signals-else they are useless

fish

Deep sea animals have been doing this for a long time now.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
3
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ My day is always better when someone asks a question about some fanciful creature design, wondering how it might evolve, and the answer comes back "yeah, we already do it." $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Commented Feb 7, 2016 at 19:35
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @CortAmmon I think my all time favorite answer I ever wrote was for an anatomically correct land shark. Goes right with "yeah, we already do it." $\endgroup$
    – Xandar The Zenon
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 0:09
  • $\begingroup$ Evolution can bring about better eye sight/better displays as a society desired trait, much as people/animals put up a display of eye catching parts of their body/abilities for various social exchanges. "Simpsons did it"... $\endgroup$
    – Nahshon paz
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 12:24
1
$\begingroup$

You're basically talking about a smarter octopus. It could definitely happen but they would have to evolve to be more social and less color blind. They would have to find the need to learn how to control their skin to create specific scenes to communicate more than colors to show their mood.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Cephalopods are not limited in color depth compared to humans, they just see color contrast very differently. Instead of differentiating by wavelength, they differentiate by polarity; so, while they see a completely different color spectrum than we do, they already perform complex TV like communications this way. Also, Mimic Octopuses use thier color shows and posturing to resemble a wide range of other sea life ranging from sea snakes to various fish as the need arises... this is already way more complex than just mood coloring. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 17:25
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for correcting my oversight $\endgroup$
    – fafo
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 22:52
0
$\begingroup$

I always figured that cows could be engineered to have chromataphore skin inspired by cephalapods, to be used for advertising.

But lab rats used at prototypes could learn to use it as active camouflage and escape: maybe the cephalapod genes also boosted their intelligence more than intended. After all, it requires processing power to control the display surface.

They would then breed with wild rats which are more genetically varied, and cause all sorts of things to happen with the unplanned interaction between genes.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Bovine billboard. Just made my day. $\endgroup$
    – Joe Bloggs
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 10:57

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .